The Star-Touched Queen

By: Roshani Chokshi

Narrated by: Priya Ayyar

Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's Summary

A lush and vivid story steeped in Indian folklore and mythology, Roshani Chokshi's The Star-touched Queen is a novel that no listener will soon forget. An instant New York Times best seller!

Fate and fortune. Power and passion. What does it take to be the queen of a kingdom when you're only 17?

Maya is cursed. With a horoscope that promises a marriage of Death and Destruction, she has earned only the scorn and fear of her father's kingdom. Content to follow more scholarly pursuits, her whole world is torn apart when her father, the Raja, arranges a wedding of political convenience to quell outside rebellions. Soon Maya becomes the queen of Akaran and wife of Amar. Neither roles are what she expected: As Akaran's queen, she finds her voice and power. As Amar's wife, she finds something else entirely: Compassion. Protection. Desire....

But Akaran has its own secrets - thousands of locked doors, gardens of glass, and a tree that bears memories instead of fruit. Soon, Maya suspects her life is in danger. Yet who, besides her husband, can she trust? With the fate of the human and Otherworldly realms hanging in the balance, Maya must unravel an ancient mystery that spans reincarnated lives to save those she loves the most...including herself.

©2016 Roshani Chokshi (P)2016 Macmillan Audio

Beautifully written prose, but underdeveloped story

This story has some insanely beautiful descriptions. The author uses poetic and vivid language to describe various aspects in the book, but the plot line, character relationships and story arc are all EXTREMELY WEAK. For a large portion of the book I had no idea what was going on or why. I didn't feel like there was any love or bond between the two MC's. I don't think I'll be continuing on with the series. It took a lot for me to power through to the end of this book.....

Enjoyable, Relaxing

I think this story had a strong start. Hinted at great powers, subtle forces moving beyond the control of the main character!

But the main story was a little flatter. Mind you, it was still a pretty enjoyable listen. It wasn't very demanding of the listener. And it's great to have a fantasy YA novel that takes place somewhere other than fake-Europe.

I recommend listening to it. But I probably won't listen to it twice

Beautiful but boring

I read this book. I enjoyed this book. I do not think I want to read the sequels. The story was beautifully written and the prose was very poetic. The descriptions were marvelous and detailed...but I really don't care one way or the other about the characters. They were flat and two dimensional and the story, while moderately entertaining, lacked a sense of vitality. The narrator didn't help either--she never changed the way she read; the entire book was flat and emotionless. I could have had the computer read it for the inflection she gave.

I'm a fan but not a star touched one

I really liked this story and wanted to love it but there were some parts in the beginning that took a while to get into. Once the second part started I was hooked. Kamala , the demon horse was fantastic and I think has more than earner her place among my top sidekicks. The story wrapped up very nicely and I wasn't left with any questions, extra hopes or even expectations.

Maybe if I had read a physical copy I would've felt more connected to the main protagonist but still, the star touched queen was an enjoyable read.

I liked this story

Interesting story mixed with Indian and Persian myths with elements from Neil Gailman's Stardust book.

different but amazing

this a story of lies and hopes. lies of false and hope of remembering love. at some point if was, funny,sad and heart warming. narration was great and fit the story lines. this book isn't a cliffhanger but hoping there would be another book about there life

Good idea, but a bit of a disappointment

This was an okay/good book.
I was excited by the idea of new mythology (to me) and the settings of Bharata, the Night Bizarre and Naraka. I’m interested in learning about new cultures and reading books set in lands and countries far different from my own. The setup of a Princess with terrible horoscope and her country hating her for it was really interesting.

However, this book was a bit of a let down for me. I was so excited to experience new mythology, but I felt like I couldn’t keep up. It wasn’t like when I read Rick Riordan books and I can feel myself learning as I immerse myself in the story of the hero. Because of this, I constantly felt like I was on the outside of an amazing party looking in and wishing I had an invitation. So one of the main reasons why I was so excited to read the book didn’t pan out like I had hoped it would.

Another reason this book was a let down was the actual progression of the story. Amar is instantly in love with Maya (we later find out why), but in the first half of the book, I never felt a growing affection from her. I didn’t feel her falling in love. So romantic development was severely lacking for me. Because I wasn’t in love and attached to Amar, I didn’t feel torn or the sense of betrayal that Maya did when Nritti was manipulating her. That scene with the memory tree could have been such an emotional rollercoaster, but it wasn’t. Instead, I got really frustrated, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
We sort of get some romantic development later on in the book, but it doesn’t happen organically. It occurs through flashbacks and the emotions attached to them, which is a disappointment because the organic route is always more powerful. I never fully bought into Maya and Amar’s love. Which sucks.

Back to Nritti and this memory tree... Maya started to really piss me off because she was so trusting and gullible. For a girl who seemed so smart in Bharata, she lacked all critical thinking skills in Naraka. It was completely obvious to me from the jump that Nritti was a totally manipulative, shady, untrustworthy snake. Yet, Maya never questions a thing Nritti says. She just eats it up. She basically took a whole bucket of candy from a stranger and gorged herself on it. She never confronts Amar to get more information or his side of the story. She just sees one image/memory of him with another woman and it’s vengeance time. No conversation. No fact checking. She doesn’t even try to squeeze information out of Gupta, Amar’s BFF and record-keeper of Naraka. I severely dislike tension or conflict within a book because the MC refuses to do something smart.

The new journey after the tree scene was sort of cool. Kamala was an awesome, and much needed, character. I loved getting to see that Gauri grew up to be a badass. I do wish that the big fight scene between Maya and Nritti was better. It literally felt like Maya threw a flash of light and then BAM! She won. Not very engaging or exciting.

I might read the next book eventually. I’m not sure. I still want to learn more about Indian mythology, but this book was more of a disappointment than I thought it was going to be.

Feels like an Angsty YA romance

I think the book might have been enjoyable if I had read it, but the narrator makes the protagonist feel like an angsty teenager and distracts from all the interesting Indian mythos rather than blending together

Not my thing.

The narration on this book was good but I found the story needing something more. This book to me was just extremely slow. It just seemed that it took forever to get the plot moving.

Loved it so much!!

Any additional comments?

I adore everything about this audiobook. The narrator is excellent. She makes you feel so close to the main character. And the voices she does for some of the other characters are great. The story is awesome. The way it weaves together its big mythic elements and the daily ordinary (or extraordinary) lives of the characters is really lovely. It's funny and magical and powerful.

Excellent book, lovely setting

If you could sum up The Star-Touched Queen in three words, what would they be?

Refreshing well-written setting

Any additional comments?

The other reviewers, who comment about the lack of plot, do have a point: the plot starts relatively late, but in my opinion, the gorgeous worldbuilding more than makes up for the late start of the main plot. The world feels very real, and constantly shows that the story and world area not based on a pseudo-medieval Europe, which is very refreshing.

The characters are interesting people, with obvious inner turmoil and their own personalities.

Some of the plot feels a little stunted, but again, the worldbuilding is great and refreshing and that, in my opinion, makes the book completely worth it.

The narrator fits the story very well, and adds very much to the experience.

a beautiful ode to Indian and Western mythology

the book starts slow, but once you get to "the wedding" chapter the plot picks up. one of the reasons why I think this book is not as highly rated as it should be is because a lot of its marketing gave away its plot. as soon as the plot picked up, I knew that I had to buy the book for myself and read.

it's interesting how the author merges a relatively famous western tale with Indian mythology, which I think she does so successfully.

the flowery language may annoy some people, but I personally thought it really helped to add to its world building.